Finally! Something to post!

Or, perhaps I should say "Finally getting around to posting!"

First is a wonderful tile quilt from the recent Road to California quilt show.  This quilt won first place in the Innovative, Wall, Applique category.  "Blast from the Past" was made by Kim Bruny and it consists of all the blocks from my "Lotus" quilt on the cover of Tile Quilt Revival, with an added border.  Kim made her version by using machine applique and covering it with over 3500 crystal embellishments. That is not something I would have done but I love it when people take my designs and run with them and make them their own.

On Valentine's Day I was in the west end of the San Fernando at the Valley Quiltmakers Guild
teaching my workshop on making a tile quilt block. We had fun and had some fun results.  As usual, the blocks are in various states of progress, with some students having started turning under the seam allowances and others in the basting stage.  Also as usual, was the nice variety of fabric choices.

 

And this week found me in Roseville, near Sacramento, at the Roseville Quilt Guild . First I want to thank Michelle Peerson for her fine hospitality and everyone for putting up with me as I was coming down with a cold.  Hopefully I only passed on an infection for tile quilts and not a cold!

We had a variety of results in the workshop, as always, and a variety of techniques being used and prepared for besides needle-turn applique. First are the "Lotus" blocks.

 I have to say that, being a cat person, I loved this block.  Cats at the movies eating popcorn.  She was going to call it Girls Night Out!

And this student modified the main circle by inserting a smaller circle so that she could use her fairy fabric to focus on just one fairy.

 This student managed to design two blocks with more in mind.

And one more.  Two students were working with the same group of fabrics and both planned to do machine applique.  

 Here's the other one in the Orange Peel pattern.

And here are the rest of the Orange Peel blocks.

Two Orange Peel shapes already appliqued in place on this one.

And the final block in which the student was rethinking her fabric choices but planned on using these.  She also planned to do machine applique so her seam allowances were turned under and pinned in place.

cold!

Pajaro Valley Quilt Association

I've just completed my last teaching assignment for 2013!  On Saturday I went "over the hill" (Santa Cruz Mountains) to Aptos and found  21 students anxious to learn about Tile Quilts.  This is the largest class I've taught and we had a great time.  At the end of the day everyone said they had lots of fun and they really enjoyed the tile quilt method.  I have to say that it was a gorgeous day close to the ocean and I'm almost surprised that they chose to be inside at a class and not outside somewhere but I suppose living there they are used to it.  The results of the workshop are shown below.

But first, I gave my lecture at the meeting on Monday evening and I was happy to see several familiar faces there from the retreat we used to attend together at Point Bonita.  Some of the workshop attendees brought their blocks to the meeting to show everyone. Fabulous!

And now the workshop blocks.  As usual a great variety of fabrics making each block unique.  The Starry Orange Peel block seemed to be the favorite of the day.

As you can see, the blocks are in various states of progress and many people got to the point of  starting to make the grout lines by turning under and appliqueing the seam allowances.

Here are the Lotus blocks, including one (at the beginning) that is from the Lotus quilt but a different block from the usual pattern I hand out in class. This pattern is in our Tile Quilt Revival book.

Thanks to you all for such a great time!

Catching Up, Again!

I have lots of fun blocks to show from two workshops.

First is the Glendale Quilt Guild.  It was fun to be in Glendale.  I was born in Glendale and it was the first quilt guild I joined when I started quilting way back in 1988.  It was the first show I entered.  Fun memories.

Here are the blocks from Glendale.  I have to say that I had a bunch of rebels -- about half the class wanted to use their own methods of applique but 3 or 4 students did use the needle-turn method.  Here are their blocks.  The first two are Starry Orange Peel, the next is a different Lotus block from the book and the next two are the usual Lotus block.  All nicely done.

 This next block was being machine appliqued.

The next two blocks were prepared with starch and ready to be appliqued by machine or hand, followed by another different Lotus block from the book.
 

This week I was in Arroyo Grande at the Central Coast Quilt Guild.  I love the central coast area and it was great to spend some time there.  On the morning of the workshop, it was very cool, foggy and overcast.  We didn't see the sun until mid-afternoon. A good day to sit and stitch!

Two students chose the Lotus block but very different fabrics!

And the rest of the class chose Starry Orange Peel, again with very different fabric selections.

And one last Starry Orange Peel, my one rebel in this class!  She isn't able to do hand applique so she prepared her block with the starch method and will finish with machine applique.

Thanks everyone for your great work and for the fun time!

Catching Up

First of all, while I was away on the east coast I've received photos of finished projects from my classes.

Maureen Nass from the Mt. Tam Quilt Guild finished her version of Lotus.

Very nice!  Thanks, Maureen for sending along the picture.  I'm so glad you enjoyed the process of making a tile quilt.  She said it was fun and she enjoyed using up some of her scraps.

Jane Toro from East Bay Heritage Quilters sent along a photo of her finished tile blocks using the Starry Orange Peel patterns which she put to use as a Huppah Canopy for her son's wedding.  Notice the sun shining through.  Now that the wedding is over, she will put the blocks together as a quilt.  Thanks, Jane!  I'm so pleased that you used the tile quilt style in such an innovative way.

And congratulations to the Bride and Groom and the parents standing under the Huppah!

While I was in Virginia, the timing was perfect for me to attend the opening of the exhibit of American Quilt Study Group's 2010 Study of 19th Century Star Quilts at the Virginia Quilt Museum.  The Museum is located in Harrisonburg, in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley.  The AQSG Studies are close to my heart as I was the coordinator for many years and the idea was born in my living room!  In order to participate, a quilt in the chosen topic is studied by making an interpretation of the original.  The interpretations are restricted to 200'' in overall size so the original quilt is either scaled down or only a portion is included.  These 25 quilts, chosen from the entire results of the Study, have been on tour since 2010.  I loved seeing my quilt again!

The quilt I chose to study was a Mennonite quilt.  I loved the Lone Star center and the applique motifs were very unusual to me.  I scaled mine down and did not include the outer border with beautiful feather quilting as it would have ended up too narrow to be effective.

The original quilt is in the collection of the Mennonite Heritage Center in Harleysville, PA. Unfortunately, the maker is unknown but it is known to have come from a Mennonite Family in Souderton, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

Here is my interpretation on exhibit at the Virginia Quilt Museum

with my good friend, Barbara Gaffield, from Williamsburg.

The quilts from the exhibit are published in a book, Stars, A Study of 19th Century Star Quilts, published by Kansas City Star Books.

And last but not least.  When I was at the American Quilt Study Group Annual Seminar in Charleston, SC, Virginia Vis shared a picture of a new tile quilt she saw at the Arlington (VA) County Fair 2012.  The quilt maker called it "Ticker Tape".  Not made in the style that Carol and I used for our book, but more in the method of the original quilts though not as random. It's fun to see. 

That's it until I go to the Glendale Quilt Guild next week!